The Indian Railways are the 8th largest employer in the world and the biggest in India. They are undoubtedly one of the most important organizations in the country. Transport is one of the most critical services of any nation. Rail transport is cheap, and with over 7000 stations across the country, nearly every nook and cranny of India can be reached by train.
Some numbers and facts
The Indian Railways employs 13 lakh people across India. Nearly 12000 officers account for the staff and line management. It earns revenue of around INR 1.875 Trillion, of which INR 1.175 Trillion is from freight transport, and INR 501 billion is from passenger revenue. During the fiscal year beginning March 2017 to March 2018, it made an estimated profit of INR 65 billion, which is almost $1 billion.
How are people employed at various levels to allow such a large organization to function so smoothly?
The IR has divided the staff into two sections, the gazetted employees, who constitute groups A, and B, and the non-gazetted employees, who represent groups C and D.
Gazetted Employees
They carry out all the executive, supervisory and managerial tasks.
Group A: These gazetted employees are selected from one of the most gruelling tests in India, the Civil Services Examinations conducted by UPSC. Railway Traffic Service, Railway Accounts Service, and Railway Job Recruitment are the departments to which such candidates will be assigned to.
Group B: These employees are not selected in any particular manner. Generally, those from Group C are promoted to the Group B after a few years of proving their worth and mettle.
Non-gazetted employees
Group C and D employees are selected through the Railway Recruitment Boards.
Group C: Job openings include both technical and non-technical posts, such as clerk, station master, ticket collector and engineering posts. These are generally for the position of depot material superintendents and junior engineers. A separate exam called the Railway Recruitment Board Non-Technical Graduate Post is conducted to hire Group C employees.
Group D: The posts in this category include Trackman, Assistant Points Man, Gunman, Peon and so on.
The Railway Recruitment Control Board or RRCB has 21 different railway recruitment cells that help in the selection procedure of candidates. The training of the selected candidates is undertaken by all the training institutes of the seven centralized zones. 295 training centres are present for this purpose around India. The training of the various Management cadres are given to the 8 Centralised Training Institutes and is shared amongst them.
In recent years, the Indians Railways has implemented a host of technologies that are extremely useful for passengers. From online reservations and the Tatkal Scheme to seat availability checking and indian railway inquiry, it is easy to know the exact location and live timings of any train through the multitude of apps and websites that are available. With several new undertakings to improve the efficiency and operations, the Indians Railways are all set to become one of the best functioning organizations in the world!